This invention relates generally to methods for roasting nuts and, more particularly, to improved methods for producing roasted nuts having an adherent honey coating or glaze and a golden medium brown roasted nut color, and to the coated, roasted nuts produced by those methods.
There is a strong and constant consumer demand for honey coated and honey glazed roasted nuts having a distinctive honey flavor and a good roasted nut color. Unfortunately, it has been found that good quality honey coated or glazed nuts cannot be produced on a mass scale by simply coating the nuts with liquid honey and then roasting.
Honey, in its liquid, natural state, presents significant handling problems in mass production operations due to its viscosity and stickiness. These inherent handling problems are aggravated by variations in honey viscosity from batch to batch and by the limited shelf life of liquid honey and resulting crystallization of sugars in the honey over time. Thus, in order to apply high viscosity liquid honey on a mass production scale, it is often necessary to heat it to lower its viscosity. In addition, where crystallization is present, additional time consuming heating and agitation of the honey before application may also be required.
A yet more significant drawback to the use of liquid honey in coating nuts is the oil which is released and comes to the surface of the nut when it is roasted. Since the nut surface is not very porous, honey coating penetration is poor and hence the adherence of the honey coating is dependent almost exclusively on the honey bond to the nut surface. However, the bond to the nut is poor when liquid honey is used, because the oil which comes to the surface of the nut during roasting prevents good adhesion. The resulting poorly adherent honey coating is readily lost, particularly when the coated nuts rub against each other, as in shipping and handling of packaged nuts. Furthermore, liquid honey reacts with the nuts during roasting, imparting undesirable dark coloring and burned flavors to the final product.
Inherent in the general consumer demand for roasted nuts having a distinctive honey flavor and good roasted nut color, there is a significant demand for honey coated roasted nuts having a continuous durable, candy-like glazed coating which will withstand abusive handling without any significant loss of the honey coating. If such honey glazed nuts could be produced, they would be highly competitive with both conventional honey coated roasted nuts and conventional sugar glazed roasted nuts, providing a crunchier mouth feel and improved coating durability, flavor and taste. Furthermore, the improved continuous, durable coating would provide an improved barrier to oxidation and hence improved nut keeping qualities. Finally, if such a continuous, durable coating could be produced, the pickup of moisture by coated nuts would be reduced, desirably reducing stickiness between individual coated nuts.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing roasted nuts having a honey coating or honey glaze in which the problems inherent in handling liquid honey are eliminated.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide honey coated roasted nuts with highly adherent coatings and, in one embodiment, to provide honey coated roasted nuts with a continuous, durable coating which will withstand particularly abusive handling.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of producing honey glazed roasted nuts with improved keeping qualities and reduced stickiness.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved economical method for producing roasted nuts having a distinctive honey flavor and a golden medium brown roasted nut color which are free of dark coloring and burned flavors.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the accompanying specification and claims.